Young apologizes for suicide remarks

ANCHORAGE — After a Valley dustup over the issues of suicide and gay marriage, U.S. Rep. Don Young issued a blanket apology for remarks on suicide that angered Wasilla High School students this past week.

At a speech to the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) convention in Anchorage Friday, Young said the issue of suicide was intimate and painful.

“Because I have been touched by this issue, it’s very personal to me,” he said. “It may have caused me to mangle some of my statements and comments that caused this uproar. But I will tell you, I have asked myself many times, did I do enough? Did I take the nephew away from an abusive father? Did I love him enough? Did I do enough? Apparently, I did not. I made up my mind that I was trying to prevent the future of suicides from occurring.”

Alaska has had suicide rates much higher than the national average since at least 1994, according to the Suicide Prevention Council of the Department of Health and Social Services. Alaska has in the past faced the distinction of being the state with the highest suicide rate.

When a teacher at Wasilla High School asked Young how he would approach the issue from a national level at a forum Tuesday, Young told students that suicides constitute a failure of support groups, several students in attendance have said. The remark caused silence and a confrontation between Young and a student who disagreed. Many students in attendance interpreted Young’s remarks as blaming them in part for the recent suicide of another student described as well liked and socially active.

“Because of my comments, I am profoundly and genuinely sorry for the pain it has caused the Alaskan people,” Young said. “I am genuinely sorry for the pain I have caused the individual, as I have experienced it, and hope that you won’t have to experience that.”

Despite how his remarks were interpreted, Young said he’s supported many legislative actions on the federal level to prevent suicide, including the Mental Health First Aid Act, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, the Victims of Crime Act and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Programs.

Notably absent from Young’s apology was any mention of remarks about same-sex marriage involving farm animals, or an apology about tone after he allegedly used an expletive to describe Hunter Hermans, the student who questioned his remarks.

A memorial for Wasilla student Jeremiah Parrett, whose recent suicide had set students on edge and led to the confrontation, drew hundreds of community supporters to a local church Thursday evening.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com